This invention relates to medical stents. Medical stents are well know for use in opening and reinforcing the interior wall of blood vessels and other body conduits.
Stents are generally tubular in configuration and radially expandable. They may be of the self-expanding type or they may be mechanically expandable with an outward pressure applied to the stent. Typically, the later type stents are expanded by means of an interiorly positioned balloon. Stents may be made of various materials such as plastic or metal. Presently, metal is the material of choice.
This invention is specifically concerned with stents in the form of a closed cylinder which is made up of a plurality of struts, the struts being deformed either permanently or otherwise upon expansion of the stent.
To-date, stents, particularly coronary stents, have been made up of elements that are relatively large and of the following order:
strut width.004 inches-.008 inchesstrut thickness.002 inches-.007 incheslargest dimension of opening between struts.100 inches-.200 inches
These dimensions and all other dimensions referred to herein after refer to the stent in its expanded state.
The basic idea behind the present invention is to provide a stent of fine structure (micro structure) that provides adequate vessel support but the openings therein are so small that the stent creates minimal disruption of the vessel surface and is so fine that it is for all practical purposes “invisible” to the body in which it is implanted and to the body constituents such as blood flow.
An analogous example is a window screen, the idea being to provide a screen (stent) to support a vessel but which is from the stand point of the various physiological aspects of the body so fine as to be effectively “invisible” and for all practical purposes can then be said to be considered by the body as being nonexistent.
There does exist in the art one example of an ultra thin micro porous nickel titanium foil which is rolled in the fashion of a jelly roll to provide a self-expanding stent. Self-expansion is provided by the natural unrolling tendency of the tightly wound stent following its implantation. However, this type of stent has not been widely acceptable and differs from the stents of the present invention in that no strut deformation occurs with respect to the elements making up the foil or screen of the ultra thin micro porous jelly roll type stent. Cardiovascular Dynamics, Inc., has published material concerning the “jelly roll” stent.